Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Civilians Evacuating Multiple Cities Amid Ukraine-Russia Ceasefire; U.S Says, Russia Has Lost Up to 10 Percent of Military Assets Used in Invasion; Retired U.S., European Military Leads Issue Call to Provide Advanced Air Defenses For Ukraine. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired March 09, 2022 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:00:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NEWSROOM: A very good morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto reporting from Lviv, Ukraine.

ERICA HILL, CNN NEWSROOM: And I'm Erica Hill in New York.

Right now, we are eight hours into a planned 12-hour cease-fire in Ukraine. Humanitarian corridors are open. We should know, though, Russia has targeted evacuation routes before. In Mariupol, the deputy mayor tells CNN the shelling there has not stopped.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEPUTY MAYOR SERGEI ORLOV, MARIUPOL, UKRAINE: Mariupol is under continuous shelling from the artillery and bombing each hour, each minute, each second.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: So far, more than 2 million people have fled Ukraine to a number of nearby countries. According to the U.N. Human Rights Office, at least 474 civilians, including 29 children, have been killed since Russia invaded Ukraine.

SCIUTTO: The U.N. says the real number is probably much higher than that.

This morning, we're getting a firsthand look at the devastation in the city of Sumy, 21 people killed in a single attack in that city on Monday, including two children. There is some good news, though. Roughly 5,000 residents were able to evacuate that town over the past 24 hours. Many thousands remain behind. CNN International Correspondent Scott McLean, he is here in Lviv with me. So, Scott, give us a sense of how, one, the cease-fire is holding, as Russia violating it, and how many people are able to get out during the cease-fire?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Jim. It certainly depends on where you are. So, some of the critical evacuation routes go from suburbs of Kyiv areas, just north and a bit west of the city into Kyiv, so presumably people can get a train or a bus out from there. We know that Bucha, one of those suburbs, according to local officials, the city council on the ground says that the Russian military is blocking the route, blocking the corridor, the convoy that's been assembled there from actually getting out. And they are pinned nearby, again, an area that has taken intense bombing from Russian forces in recent days.

The corridor there, the convoy is moving, same thing for an orphanage in suburban Kyiv as well. That has also been evacuated. Sumy, you mentioned, had some success, getting about 5,000 people out yesterday. They're hoping for the same today. But in Izyum, which is in the eastern part of Ukraine, local officials say that there had been explosions nearby, better news in Enerhodar. That is the city where a nuclear power plant right now is being operated or had been taken over by the Russians. A corridor out of that city appears to be holding at this stage.

Now, CNN spoke with the Kyiv mayor earlier today and he said that he understood that people in Bucha had been hiding in bunkers for the last week. He said there was about a thousand of them that were down there without very much food and water. He also said also were Kyiv to be surrounded by Russian forces, they would have enough food and water and supplies to last only about a week or two, so a potentially dire situation there.

And the mayor specifically had harsh criticism for the Russians, because, of course, the Russian military continues to claim that they are only targeting military targets, but, clearly, that is not the case, and he cited specifically the example of a mayor of one suburb of Kyiv who was killed in a Russian strike just earlier this week. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR VITALI KLITSCHKO, KYIV, UKRAINE: They just bring, try to help with the evacuation, bring the food and make the green corridor. In this moment, he was killed. It's no rules. Right now, we see how many schools, preschools destroyed. How many civilians died in this war? The Russian explains it's just war against Ukranian soldiers. It's not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[10:05:00]

MCLEAN: And, Jim, evidence that these corridors are working was seen earlier today at the Lviv train station, so the first corridor or the first convoy leaving Sumy in Northeastern Ukraine took 11 hours to get to the city that it was headed toward in Ukraine. And then from there, the people were put on a train headed west here to Lviv. Many of them were students, more than 700 of them. I spoke to some of them when they arrived, and, obviously, they are beyond happy to be here despite the very difficult journey.

SCIUTTO: Yes. And, listen, when Russia says that it's not hitting civilians, it's lying. We see and we hear and we watch and we speak to the victims every day. Scott McLean, thanks so much.

CNN International Security Editor Nick Paton Walsh, he has been in the southern town of Mykolaiv, also hard hit. It's an important connection near the port city of Odesa, which is expected to be another major Russian target. He was there as shelling increased overnight. Residents have to fill street corners with tires in advance of a Russian assault to try to block it.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: A very dark morning, frankly, here in Mykolaiv. There was some, I think, possibly hope amongst locals when they awoke to see that the tires had not been set fire. Those tires, which the regional head had asked them to lay them at every intersection, and in a matter of hours, a startling number appeared. It's extraordinary across the entire city, wherever you go, there are abandoned tires now on the side of the road. But this morning there was again shelling. And it's been intermittent but quite persistent.

I'm at a hospital here and we've just been talking to victims of that. There are five children in here, one on his own because his surviving father is burying his mother and sister. Startling how lives are just being changed minute by minute here.

We went to one house, a house hit by an airstrike, and the gentleman who owned it with his wife, she came out telling me that she didn't even have any slippers left, and describing how the rocket hit the front of the back, they were in the back, and he explained to me how 43 years ago he built it with his hands, and he said, look, what is left of our life here at all, even a vegetable warehouse destroyed by an airstrike last night.

It's extraordinary how the shelling is hitting residential parts of Mykolaiv all over and how it has been the case for days. We've seen the victims in the hospital. Tactically, there is some suggestion that we might be seeing the Russians trying to move in significant numbers around the north of this port city. It's split by a river, and everybody seems to know here that the Russian forces want control of the bridges that run across the city.

SCIUTTO: Surrounding cities full of millions of people. Nick Paton Walsh, thanks very much.

Well, right now, Vice President Kamala Harris is in route to Poland, just across the border from us here in Lviv, as the U.S. considers, among other steps, how to get more fighter jets to Ukraine. The Pentagon rejected a plan from Poland to transfer some jets it has through the U.S., a proposal that U.S. officials say -- at least when it came out publicly -- caught the Biden administration off guard.

Soon, Secretary of State Antony Blinken hosts the U.K. foreign secretary on another front of the diplomatic push. Those meetings come as Russia faces a much slower advance on the ground in Ukraine and it is expected or planned for.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO (voice over): Nearly two weeks into the invasion, the war in Ukraine has become a slow, grinding conflict, not the blitzkrieg advance the Russian military had planned and hoped for.

AVRIL HAINES, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: Russia's failure to rapidly seize Kyiv and overwhelm Ukraine forces has deprived Moscow of the quick military victory that probably had originally expected.

SCIUTTO: U.S. and NATO military assistance to Ukrainian forces has flowed in quickly and in enormous quantities. Today, the U.S. and partners have provided some 17,000 anti-tank missiles, including the Javelin and AT4 shoulder-fired systems, and, according to a senior U.S. official, some 3,700 anti-aircraft missiles, including the Stinger shoulder-fired missile, the vast majority since the start of the invasion.

These missiles have had an immediate impact on the battlefield. This is a shoulder-fired missile shooting down a Russian attack helicopter.

BRIG. GEN. STEVE ANDERSON, U.S. ARMY (RET.): It's a race between our ability and NATO's ability to push forward supplies.

SCIUTTO: Military losses are harder to gauge. According to two senior U.S. officials briefed on the intelligence, the U.S. estimates Russia has lost somewhere between 2,000 and 4,000 soldiers, though this assessment comes with low confidence. The U.S. does not have reliable information on losses of Ukrainian military personnel.

On the battlefield, Russian forces have advanced more quickly in the south, from the Russian-controlled territory in Crimea, more slowly in the east and the north, though they continue efforts to surround cities, such as Kharkiv.

[10:10:08]

A senior U.S. official tells me the U.S. believes Russia is still several days from being able to surround the capital, Kyiv, and after that, faces a protracted battle to occupy the city itself.

HAINES: Our analysts assess that Putin is unlikely to be deterred by such setbacks and instead may escalate.

We assess Putin feels aggrieved the west does not give him proper deference and perceives this as a war he cannot afford to lose.

SCIUTTO: As Russia forces has stalled, its forces have increasingly targeted the civilian population with aerial bombardment and shelling, following a time-worn Russian strategy it pursued ruthlessly in Chechnya in the 1990s and more recently in Syria.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO (on camera): A group of senior retired U.S. military officers and former defense chiefs of three Baltic countries are now calling on Ukraine's allies to provide further air defense capabilities to defend against by the Russian Air Force, as well as missile attacks. That's according to a letter obtained by CNN. This move stops short of another proposal you've heard, a no-fly zone, or even a limited no-fly zone.

We are now joined by one of those people who signed that most recent letter, retired Army Major General Michael Repass. He is a former commander of U.S. Special Operations Forces in Europe. Thank you, sir, for joining us this morning.

You're well aware of the debate over how to help more, in effect, and a no-fly zone rejected by U.S. officials because of the prospect of putting U.S. or NATO warplanes head to head with Russian warplanes and perhaps sparking a broader war.

So, this letter, you propose something short of that, explain exactly what kind of air defenses you're talking about.

MAJ. GEN. MICHAEL REPASS (RET.), FORMER COMMANDER, U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES IN EUROPE (voice over): Sure. Hey, thanks for having me on. What we proposed in the letter is that we reconstitute the air defense network that the Ukrainians lost on the opening day of the campaign from Russia. Specifically, Russia targeted the Ukrainian air defense networks, took out their radars and some of their missile batteries and significantly degraded their anti-air capability.

So, what we proposed is that we appeal to the NATO partners there, or even go globally, to find where these S-300 systems that are out there, that are the same ones that the Ukrainians are already using. That way, there is no training required, they just take the equipment that's already there and they employ that. So, that's the essence of the proposal.

HILL: So, in terms of that proposal, when asked about this, the State Department's undersecretary for political affairs reportedly told lawmakers that there are some items on your list that, quote, we think we can do. Have you had any specific updates whether it's in terms of what those things on the list may be or what the timing could be?

REPASS (voice over): No. That would be great to have that. We haven't heard any of that feedback yet. I don't expect the State Department to give me a jingle on that, to be honest with you, but our point is this can be done, it can be done quickly, and it doesn't require expensive coordination and, I would say, problem solving to make this happen. The Ukrainians can use it if we get it to them right away. So, this is a very simple solution.

SCIUTTO: How would you get it to them? I know that the supply lines have proven robust for getting in shoulder-fired anti-tank missiles, the Javelins, as we reported a few minutes ago, by the thousands, anti-aircraft missiles as well. But we're talking about bigger equipment here. Do you get it in by road? Are you concerned that it would be targeted on its way in? How do you do it as a practical matter?

REPASS (voice over): Well, the practical aspect of this is it would be staged at a country and brought in, obviously away from the eyes of the Russians that are looking for this kind of business. Yes, there is a possibility it could be interdicted en route. That possibility absolutely exists. So, it's not risk-free, but it's better than doing nothing. Doing nothing brings, I think, a higher risk to the security of Ukraine and the defensive network that's there now.

So, we have got to do something. This is something that can be done. There is nothing left easy to do in support of Ukraine. But we think from here on out, it's going to be hard. So, you can do it by ground, you can do it by air, going into remote airfields somewhere, and bring this stuff in. There are multiple ways to get it in. We just got to have the political will to get it done.

SCIUTTO: Your colleague, General Breedlove, made the point last hour that there are no risk-free options, just a matter of risk management or reduction. Major General Michael Repass, thanks so much.

REPASS (voice over): Thank you.

[10:15:00]

SCIUTTO: Still ahead, some Ukrainians facing really little or no choice when it comes to staying or leaving. Up next, we're going to talk with one Ukrainian who faced just such a long, arduous, dangerous journey to get out.

HILL: Plus the Kremlin calling President Biden's ban on Russian imports and other sanctions a declaration of economic war on Russia and the impact on gas prices. We'll take a look at some of the potential other side effects to come.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:20:00]

SCIUTTO: Today, the House is expected to vote on a massive $1.5 trillion government spending bill that will fund a wide range of priorities, including delivering desperately needed aid here to Ukraine.

HILL: And both the House and the Senate must pass that bill before the Friday deadline in order to avert a government shutdown.

CNN's Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju live on Capitol Hill this morning. So, talk to us a little bit more, Manu, about what is in this bill specifically in terms of aid.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. This is about $14 billion that would help bolster efforts to combat the Russian aggression, the Russian war in Ukraine, helping with all sorts of efforts in dealing with that bolstering what's happening, the efforts in Europe, to deter the Russian threat and has bipartisan support on Capitol Hill. But that $14 billion piece is just simply a fraction of the larger $1.5 trillion spending bill to keep the government open passed this Friday.

This bill, 2,741 pages dropped in essentially the dead of the night, introduced at 1:30 in the morning here, and it's going to be passed in the House this afternoon before members will even have a chance to read it before it gets sent over to the Senate and they're going to try to pass it in the Senate in the coming days.

Now, this comes as the House is already moving on a separate front later today to try to codify that, the administrative ban against Russian energy imports. A bill has been introduced, actually moved forward on that effort, but there have been some changes made after the White House resisted what some Democrats and Republicans had hoped to suspend normal trade relations with both Russia and Belarus.

So, they had changed that language, watered down that language, and this bill now will simply deal with -- mostly deal with just simply codifying what Joe Biden said yesterday. But, nevertheless, these are some of the initial steps that Congress is taking, bolstering aid to Ukraine and also making clear that Russian energy imports will be suspended, at least temporarily. Guys?

SCIUTTO: It's a big move. Manu Raju, thanks very much.

Here in Ukraine, more than 2 million refugees have already fled the country, 2 million in just two weeks. Now, that number is growing rapidly every day.

Among those who have had to leave their home and their life in Ukraine is our next guest. Her name is Yevheniia Khadzhynova. She's a university student in Kyiv, recently fled her home town of Volnovakha in Ukraine. Yevheniia, it's good to have you here.

I wonder, first, if you could describe what your hometown was like, what the situation was there that forced you to flee.

YEVHENIIA KHADZHYNOVA, FLED FROM HOME IN VOLNOVAKHA, UKRAINE: My hometown always was a peaceful town, and now it's fully destroyed by Russian soldiers. Our houses are burned, our hospitals are ruined. My school is fully ruined. And, actually, living in Volnovakha for this (INAUDIBLE) war was like living in hell. We have no lights, no electricity, no water, no gas, no internet connection or any connection to the outside world.

And I'm really glad that my family and I managed to evacuate from this -- from this.

SCIUTTO: Yes, you're running for your lives.

Can you describe what that escape was like, because that can be very dangerous?

KHADZHYNOVA: Yes. Ukrainian soldiers saved us. They evacuated us to one evacuation point where we could find food and water, and it was really dangerous. And when we arrived into this location point, I was trying not to look. I really didn't want to see all the destruction. I didn't want to see corpses lying on the ground, but I still saw everything and I was terrified.

SCIUTTO: You must have been.

Now, many people -- I imagine many people you know couldn't leave, right? Are they left behind there now?

[10:25:00]

KHADZHYNOVA: Yes. Many people are missing. Families can't find their relatives. And there are so much -- so many people that are still hiding in the basement. And I'm really scared about what we are going to find out about one of our friends, our citizens, when the war will end. And I don't know what to say.

SCIUTTO: Goodness. I know it just has to be heartbreaking for you, terrifying for you, as you said. Do you believe you will be able to go home in weeks, months, someday?

KHADZHYNOVA: Yes, I truly believe in Ukraine, in our army. I believe that better days are coming. All Ukrainians now are united. We are all integrated. We support each other. We encourage each other. And I know that I will be back in Ukraine. I know that I will be back in my hometown. I will help to rebuild my country. I will help to rebuild my hometown. And I know that everything will be great. I believe in it.

SCIUTTO: Well, I want to tell you we hope that for you. And I'm certain people watching this hope the same. Yevheniia, we do wish you the best, we wish you safety, most of all.

KHADZHYNOVA: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: So many stories like that across this country. I can tell you, every day, we hear them, my colleagues hear them. It's happening to average people who, until two weeks ago, were living their lives peacefully and now have had it upturned by war, millions of them. We'll continue to bring you those stories.

Coming up next this hour, what the ban on Russian energy imports as well as higher prices at the gas pump mean for the U.S., also for green energy efforts.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:30:00]